CITY OF INDUSTRY >> Los Angeles city, county and state leaders stressed that without a late push, Metro’s Measure M on the November ballot may not pass, dooming funding for 40 projects including completion of the 71 Freeway, the 57/60 interchange and extension of the Gold Line to Claremont.

Polling for the measure, which would add a half-cent to the sales tax in Los Angeles County and raise about $120 billion over 40 years, is showing about 67 percent to 69 percent support across the county, confirmed Yes on M campaign spokesman Yusef Robb.

The last transportation tax, Measure R, won by 68 percent in 2008, but four years ago an extension failed by 15,000 votes. Traditionally, such measures that require 66.67 percent to pass — a two-thirds super majority — tend to be cliffhangers on election night, and this one looks to be no different.

Members of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) who spoke at a San Gabriel Valley transportation conference Wednesday, said the polling could drop below two-thirds due to the polls’ margin of error. They said there is no Plan B should Measure M come up short.

“It is clear an overwhelming majority of people want this. Whether we get over the two-thirds will all depend on who turns out to vote,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a member of the Metro board.

Supervisor and Metro board member Hilda Solis, whose district includes the southeast cities and parts of the San Gabriel Valley, said she didn’t support the 2008 measure because she felt it was unfair to the San Gabriel Valley. This measure’s project list is equitable to all regions, she said.

“Yet the project list is only imaginative unless we get it passed. We have a way to go in terms of turning out voters,” she said.

Supporters included Democratic representatives in Congress — Grace Napolitano, Judy Chu and Chris Holden — who spoke at the event. The measure also is gaining support from Republicans. Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who is running in the 25th state Senate District along the foothills against former assemblyman Anthony Portantino, is supporting the tax measure, saying it is needed to extend the Gold Line light-rail to Claremont, for which more than $1 billion is included in Measure M. But he’s also advocating the light-rail go to Montclair in San Bernardino County and link with Ontario Airport.

State Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, also is supporting Measure M, saying it will add connectivity in the region and create jobs, a “win-win” that is needed for a growing population.

Huff, a conservative, said his position on raising taxes has not always been in the affirmative but has “matured” after seeing the state fail to address gridlocked freeways and the need for more mass transit.

“I support it. We have a growing county, one of the highest tax states in the nation, yet people want to live here and people want to come here. And we’ve got to have transportation to get around,” Huff said.

West Covina City Councilman Mike Spence, a conservative, said he’s not supporting Measure M, saying it favored Los Angeles over the 87 smaller cities in the county.

“It doesn’t make sense for the San Gabriel Valley or for (other) cities to be taxed so L.A. will get their big mass transit projects that nobody uses,” said Spence during a break in the conference, referring to such projects as the completion of a subway to Westwood and a rail tunnel connecting the Westside to the San Fernando Valley.

Huff said he’s heard similar arguments from other conservatives and disagrees with them. “The reality is, if you make L.A. and the Westside flow better, the rest of the county flows better, too. So there is a benefit to everybody,” Huff said.

Glendora Mayor Gene Murabito, president of the SGVCOG, which is the only council of governments in the region to endorse Measure M, said he’s heard from conservatives in Glendora who are opposed because the measure continues indefinitely, without a sunset.

He said it would be irresponsible for Metro to build new rail lines and expand bus service without finding a way to pay for their continual operation. “We have to be able to maintain what is built. So that is the reason for that not having a sunset.”

When Garcetti was asked if he was concerned about losing the support of many South Bay and Gateway city leaders who say the measure doesn’t do enough for their region, he answered: “The last poll said 73 percent of the people who live in the Gateway cities were for this and only 23 percent were opposed,” he said.

The only Measure M transit project planned for the South Bay is an extension of the Green Line to Torrance. If passed, $619 million in Measure M funds would be allocated to extending that light rail line 4.7 miles from Redondo Beach to the Torrance Transit Center.

The measure funds 37 percent for new rail lines; 27 percent for transit operations (bus and rail) and access for people with disabilities, seniors and students; 19 percent for highways and complete streets; and 17 percent for local cities to fix roads and potholes and Metrolink commuter rail.

Steve Scauzillo covers environment and transportation for the Southern California News Group. He has won two journalist of the year awards from the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club and is a recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing on environmental issues. Steve studied biology/chemistry when attending East Meadow High School and Nassau College in New York (he actually loved botany!) and then majored in social ecology at UCI until switching to journalism. He also earned a master's degree in media from Cal State Fullerton. He has been an adjunct professor since 2005. Steve likes to take the train, subway and bicycle – sometimes all three – to assignments and the newsroom. He is married to Karen E. Klein, a former journalist with Los Angeles Daily News, L.A. Times, Bloomberg and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and now vice president of content management for a bank. They have two grown sons, Andy and Matthew. They live in Pasadena. Steve recently watched all of “Star Trek” the remastered original season one on Amazon, so he has an inner nerd.